Mariners excited with what they’ve seen from switch-pitching prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje

Since the day he made his professional debut in the Spring Breakout game this past March in Goodyear, Arizona, Jurrangelo Cijntje has been the source of seemingly endless amounts of fascination from around the baseball world.

Fans gather by Everett’s Funko Field bullpen on his Saturday start days to watch Cijntje throw, as local and national reporters come calling to ask frequent questions about his remarkable skills, and teammates and other players watch in awe of his talent.

Now, one year after the Mariners chose the former Mississippi State pitcher with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft, professional baseball’s only switch-pitcher will be in the spotlight once again. Cijntje, along with fellow Mariners prospects Harry Ford and Lazaro Montes, will show his stuff in the All-Star Futures Game in Atlanta on July 12.

Cijntje is still only a few months into his pro baseball career, but with his ability to throw more than 90 miles per hour with both arms, the Dutch-born, Curaçao-raised, and fluent in four languages Cijntje is someone who could make a quick rise through Seattle’s minor-league system.

MLB.com predicts that the 22-year old Cijntje, the Mariners’ No. 8 ranked prospect, will reach the big leagues in 2027.

For now, Cijntje’s talents are on display in High-A Everett, where he has a 4.88 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP with 31 walks and 58 strikeouts in 51 ⅔  innings for the AquaSox.

“He’s a special, special player,” AquaSox manager Zach Vincej said. “There’s a reason he gets a lot of attention, because it really hasn’t been done at this caliber before. To be a first-round pick and have the skill set with both arms, it’s pretty incredible.”

A natural lefty, Cijntje throws mostly from the right side these days. When he was around six or seven years old, Cijntje began to throw righty in order to be able to play the infield and catcher, and it soon became his default arm.

“The right side developed better than the left side just because I’ve been playing shortstop since I was a kid, shortstop and second base,” Cijntje said. “I stopped using my left side for a while, and I was just focused on my right side, … but the left side is getting better too. It’s getting more like in the strike zone, getting closer to the strike zone. Just gotta get (more) reps and just keep working.”

The left side sat neglected until Cijntje’s Curaçao-based team made it to the Little League World Series in 2016, when he was 13 years old. Cijntje’s two-way throwing ability earned some attention in that tournament as his team scored an upset win over Japan in the opening round, and he got even more eyes on him when he switch-pitched during his two collegiate seasons at Mississippi State.

Cijntje throws significantly harder from the right side, with a fastball that is close to 100 mph, along with a changeup and wipeout slider. But his left side is plenty strong too, with a sweeper and a fastball that can get up to around 95 mph.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to be a really special pitcher from the right side,” Vincej said. “We still want to honor that and make sure that’s progressing in the right way there. The left-handed side is still a special skill set, and so we still want to attack that as well.”

For now, the Mariners want him to focus on throwing mostly as a righty, while still continuing to develop the left because of the platoon advantage that a left-on-left matchup brings to the game.

“We’ve been excited with both,” Mariners farm director Justin Toole said. “And I think, you know, he’s shown that it’s not just a gimmick, it’s something that he could be really good with from both sides.”

While his first season has gone pretty well overall, Cijntje has battled a couple of injuries recently. He left a start on May 31 due to what Mariners GM Justin Hollander said was a “vibrating sensation” in his right tricep. He skipped his next scheduled start in favor of a bullpen session, and then rolled his ankle covering first base on June 11.

Neither issue wound up being anything serious, but Toole admits that the organization has probably leaned more on the overprotective side when it comes to Cijntje’s workload, as there is no real existing playbook for how to develop a pitcher of Cijntje’s abilities.

The original plan coming into 2025 was for Cijntje to make one start per week as a right-handed pitcher with a few lefty throws mixed in, along with one relief appearance per week as a lefty.

But the Mariners reevaluated after talking to Cijntje​​, and the plan now is for him to pitch as a mostly-righty starter, while throwing against some lefty hitters with his left arm throughout the game.